If Tom Cruise can play Jack Reacher, then he can play just about anyone. That was presumably the logic that went into the decision to give the okay to remake “The Magnigicent Seven” (itself a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai,” of course) in which Cruise will (presumably) be taking on the lead role first occupied by Yul Brynner. We voiced our concerns back when the project was first announced that without a smattering of other A-Listers this could fast become “The Magnificent One And His Six Friends,” but our concerns have no impact on MGM who look to be moving forward at a brisk pace with the project.

Cruise has a whole heap of projects on his to-do list so we assume there will be an effort to make this happen before Cruise gets distracted or his schedule fills up. MGM has hired writer Nic Pizzolatto to pen the script, which for the time being we have to assume will be a Western, but given the source material we guess Pizzolatto could change things up in any number of ways should he so please.

The screenwriter doesn’t have an awful lot of credits on his resume to date, and the only things that he’s written that has made it to the screen are a couple of episodes of “The Killing.” He does, however, have the Matthew McConaughey/Woody Harrelson project “True Detective” in the works over at HBO and his screenplay for “The Snakehead” is also in development. The project still hasn’t received an official green light despite Cruise’s commitment, so it looks like it will come down to the quality of the script that Pizzolatto produces. We’re rooting for him, if only for the fact that it means it’s less likely that we’d have to see Cruise as “Van Helsing” or reprising an old role for “Top Gun 2.” [Variety]